Political parties have been urged to avoid imposing candidates and to be sensitive to the concerns of the communities ahead of the 2023 general elections.
The problem of double candidature is endemic to political practices in Zimbabwe and the electorate is often shortchanged.
Speaking during a CITE’s daily Twitter space ‘This morning on Asakhe’ on qualities of candidates in the 2023 ballot box, a participant Tendai Marombe said he wants to see young people with requisite skills dominating in the upcoming elections.
“We would like to see young people represented as candidates. We don’t want to see old people, it doesn’t matter which party, if it’s Zanu-PF, CCC or whatever party, we want to see young people. What we are fighting for is the young blood to take over, we want to see young people taking over, and also with the requisite skills, we don’t want people coming without skills or maybe they are getting favoured because they know someone who is part of top officials in the party,” he said.
Another participant, Zenzele Ndebele said there is a challenge that when it comes to election time, political parties impose their preferred candidates in constituencies where they have no support.
“This has led to parties whether it’s the opposition or the ruling party losing some constituencies and some wards because they don’t have people who are liked by the community or picked by the community. I think communities want someone who is responsible, someone who they respect, and someone who is there for them. If we can respect that voters are not fools, they know what they want, they want candidates if it’s a councillor, someone who lives among them,” said Ndebele.
“What is the purpose of being a councillor in Nkulumane when you stay in Burnside and when they are talking about issues of sewage, you are not even there, you are not affected. What is the purpose of being an MP in Ndolwane when you stay in Harare and you only go there if there are parliamentary meetings.”
He said political parties need to be sensitive to the concerns of the communities and this is where a lot of politicians get it wrong because they just want to go where they are winning without actually taking into consideration the community’s needs.
Meanwhile, Tsepang Nare said candidates should have entrepreneurial governance skills.
“It’s not enough for councillors to be telling us that we haven’t managed to widen revenue collection base, there is no funding, councillors must be development-oriented, they must champion development. In order to champion development, you don’t need to only wait for revenue, you need to come up with business models and mechanisms to make more money on top of the revenue that you get and we seem not to be getting that be it in Bulawayo or anywhere, it’s always complaints,” said Nare.
However, another speaker, comedian Ma40 said where candidates come from doesn’t really matter, ‘we should look for a person who genuinely loves community change for the better.”
“We shouldn’t look at the family background, the family set-up, because that also cannot determine whether you are going to be a good leader. I think we should look at candidates who genuinely love people, and who genuinely want to see people do better. For instance, I would never vote for anyone who is in the current council for Bulawayo regardless of what they think they did good, they have done badly in general. If you see yourself voting for the same very people who are council back into the office, that shows a problem with the electorate,” he said.
Zanu PF and the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) are on record saying that they will not impose candidates in the 2023 elections.
